Sensor-Timed Sorting Line | mysimulator.uk

Line Parameters

Belt speed 0.60 m/s

Actuator response delay 120 ms

Pusher dwell time 140 ms

Spawn rate 1.4 items/s

Live Readouts

Throughput

0 /min

Sort accuracy

—

Sorted / Missed

0 / 0

On belt

Event Log

How it works

This is a discrete-event, sequential control loop — not a continuous PID feedback loop. A photoelectric sensor at position x_s reports the instant t_d a part crosses it. The controller schedules the pneumatic diverter, sitting a fixed distance d ahead, to fire once that part reaches it:

t_arrive = t_d + d / v_belt
t_fire   = t_arrive + delay        (controller + valve latency)
window   = [t_arrive, t_arrive + w]   (part physically at the diverter, width w = part length / v_belt)

The part is sorted correctly only if the pusher's open interval [t_fire, t_fire + dwell] overlaps the part's transit window. If delay + reaction time pushes t_fire past the window, the part sails by unsorted — the same failure mode as a real line running too fast for its actuator's cycle time.

Belt speed — sets both part transit time and how tight the timing window gets.
Actuator response delay — the controller-to-valve latency; too large and fast parts are missed.
Pusher dwell time — how long the diverter stays extended; too short narrows the catch window, too long risks fouling the next part.
Spawn rate — part arrival rate; pushing it up stresses the same timing budget a real production-rate increase would.

Real-world relevance: this is the same sense→schedule→actuate sequencing used by photoelectric-sensor sorters, pick-reject stations and pneumatic diverters on real packaging and fulfillment lines — accuracy is a timing-budget problem, not a force-control one.

Part Sensor beam Diverter (armed/firing)

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